Machine for applying roofing material



br i 2- R. A. SMITH ETAL 2 3, 9

'MACHINEFOR APPLYING ROOFINGMYATERIAL I Filed Jan. 30, 1939' Patented Feb. 11,1942

1 1,273,595,31 "MACHI E on APPLYING ooms a-lsih t Norwood, animus 1. Williams, Walpole, Masa, ISBIIIIOHJOgLBlld :& Son, Inc.,

fcliusetts a v a A I realms. {Ihis inventionrelatesto a'z portable roofing EastWalpoldMass a corporation of,Massan mm January 30, li ijse el N mm ing agent, and, especially" where the roof is' of I machine adapted foruse inibonding sheet roof-,

possible,andthen a striprof the roofing material, such asxfelt,-is applied on-the bonding agent.

' Commonly, the istrips-oflsheet'material overlap each other,- and several layers of alternating bonding material and sheet material are often bu t p- By, application I in manner," several diiliing'material to a roof, particularly-in 'the"fabricatlon of so-called..built-uproofing. a The prevailing commercial method 'offabricatingvbuilt-up roofs involves the applicationof V hot asphalt, pitch, tar, or other cementing-or bonding material, either hot or cold, by"ineans of a a mop, the bonding material being spread over the strip 'to, be coveredis as uniforrn a layer as 4 cultiesarise, both in the operation-10f spreading [the sheet material, as it isapplied, tendsto bridge, over depressions in the surface between the high points which "the rollcontacts. So also, if -the strips are being overlapped, the later applied; strip tends to bridge from the roof to 'the top iof the previously-applied adjacent strip'leavthe bonding'agent and in the resulting roof, All roofs havensurface irregularities, and since the 1 sheet. material is customarily applied from a roll,

the sloping type, is not at all satisfactory.

TOur invention, therefore, has for its object mechanism whichoperates to securea more perfect bonding'of the sheet material to the roof or other layers, through elimination of trapped airspaces, thus increasin'gfthe useful life of the roo1'.

To this end, our machine insures application of the bonding agent in such manner that depressionscausecl by irregularities in the surface, or gapscaused by overlapping; will be substantially completely fllle d' with bonding material,

by-reason of the factthat the exposedsurface of each"strip of bonding material conforms substantially to-"the path of a straight edge moved in a direction normal to the straight edge against and progressively over a width of the surface to, be covered by a layer of combined strips of bonding agent and sheet material; Such surface configurationof the applied strip -of' bonding material permits subsequent application theretorof the strip'of sheet material, of a width approximately equal to thewidth of the coating, without trap- .ping' undesirable amounts of air, by applying or pressing "the sheet material onto the coated strip beneath or from a roll moved against and proinga decided gap between itself and the roof in a the area adjacent alongitudinal edge of the preyiously applied strip. Consequently-unless the previouslyapplied bonding agent completely fills such depressions or gaps caused by the-bridging;

air spaces will'be left between the sheet material "and certainportions of the bonding" agent, w=ncl1 airspaces become sealed and especially so v,wlrenfurther layers are, subsequently applied;

aha 'even if rolling or brushing of. the "roofing be resorted to, I the- -t rapped air is i not satisfactorily removed. It'has been evident that the presence of trapped air'between'v any two layers reduces materially-the serviceability, of the roof, as under these conditions-the sheet materials are subject ed to a blistering action which results in amore rapid failure of the material.

.. Des "te theexercise of exceeding care'inthe mODD nS operation, in the attempt 'to-securea surface which will receive the sheet material satisfactorily, the presencegof these air spaces is;

practically unavoidableq One practicedeslgned; to eliminate the air spaces involvesithe applica- .tionof a surplus ofthe bonding agent to the roof,

so that as the: rollrofisheet-:m'aterial is passed over, the, coating: the bonding agent will flow along in front of theroll'u This practice, however, results in an uncontrolledflow of thebond- 7 ing the possibility of the e 'slvely over the'coatedsurface with itsaxis disposednormally tothe direction of its move-j ment, and withits' direction of movement the same as that ofaa'straight edge in generating a pathconforming to the exposed surface of the particular strip of bonding material towhich the sheet material i's being applied. In this manner,

as the sheet material is'applied, the axis of the roll will generate a pathcfsubstantially the same configuration as theexposed surface of the applied bonding material; and every portionof thep'ar-ticular strip of sheet material will therefore tend to contact thecoating, thus minimizpresence of the detrimental airspacesi I The machine of our invention will be described j in connection with the accompanying drawingfi, which; e mgr is a perspective view of the machine;

Fig;- 2ais =a bottom plan view of the feeding dev'iceyand Fig. 3 is'a cross-sectional view taken along the lines +3of Fig. 2. a I a As shownin Fig. 1, we provide a hopper or' tank adapted to receive adhesive or cementing material, as asphalt, pitch, tar, or other mate-, rial commonly used as bonding agents for sheet roofing materials. The hopper or tank I0 is fixedly mounted on a frame l2, which is supported by rotary elements including wheels l4, 'l4 and a roll l8.

The roll l8 isadapted to feed sheet roofing material, as I8, from asupply roll 28, which-may be conveniently mounted on an arbor 22 received in suitable-slots inthe frame I2- at the rear of the machine, as shown'in Fig. 1. An idler roll 24, flanged or plain, may also be provided, journalled in the frame l2, to facilitate accurate feeding of the sheet material I8 from the roll 28 to the feeding roll l8.

A handle 28 is provided on the frame l2, an as is obvious, the handle may be so arranged as topermit a pivoting thereof, so that the machinemay be pushed as well as'pulled. With' the handle in the position shown in Fig. 1, it will be understood that, as the machine is pulled ing the feeding device, so that the feeding device maybe free to move vertically with respect to the throat rnay be" used,

for instance, flexible or hinged tubing or. ducts.

The feeding device A terminates in a leading bottom edge 88 and confining side edges 68, 88, all three of which are disposed in a horizontal plane so as to confine the bonding agent, especially from uncontrolled flow laterally. To prevent the leading edge 88 from catching on projectidns, as nailheads, we have provided a roller 18 mounted in advance of the leading edge 88 for rotation in brackets 12, 12, each extending from the side of the feeding device A.

by the handle, the sheet material l8 will be fed around the feed roll l8 onto the surface on which the machine is placed.-

In order to coat the surface with the bonding agent contained in the hopper or tank Hi, just prior to the contacting of the sheet material 18 on the surface, we provide a feeding device, generally indicated at A in Fig. l, and shown further in 2 and 3.

This feeding device includes a. T-shaped throat 48 attached to the bottom of the hopper or tank l8, and having 'a series of internal vertical ports 42, 42, etc., of any desired number, shown as ten in the accompanying drawing, leading downwardly. ,Inset in 'the, top of the throat are two valve plates 44, 44, each of which has .valve' openings 48, 46, etc., adapted to register with the respective ports on each side of the throat. The valve plates 44, 44 are moved laterally of the throat, independently of each other, in order to close the ports 42, 42. These 'valves are operated throughthe mediumof two rods 48, 48, resting on the bottom of the hopper and supported in a vertical position by passing transmitted into reciprocal lateral movement of the plates 44 to open or close ports 42. I

While this suitable arrangement for the valves has been described, it is obvious that other forms of valve may be used, the specific form or position thereof not constituting a part of this invention.

The feeding device A is boxlike inform, providing a chamber which receives the bonding material from the ports 42, so as to confine a head or reservoir thereof upon the surface to be coated. The feeding device as shown in the accompanying drawing is mounted for a sliding verticalmovement outside and relative to the throat 40, which movement is limited downwardly by virtue of the support thereof, which includes inverted bolts 80, attached to frame l2 and passing loosely through brackets 82 aflixed one upon each side wall of the feeding device. While,

by this arrangement, gravity will insure that the feeding device Awill contact the surface of the roof, a spring 64 may beprovided on each bolt 88 to aid gravity in yieldingly urging the feeding device downwardly against the surface to be coated. Other arrangements for connect- The rear wall of the feeding device A terminates abovethe' horizontal plane in which the edges 68, 88, 68 are disposed, and is provided with a spreading element 88 mounted on the rear wall for vertical movement independent thereof, through the provision of supporting bolts 8|, 8|, extending through vertical slots in theelement into the rear wall, and bolts, 82, 82, screw threaded into brackets, 83, 83, fixed to the element 80, the bolts 82, 82 passing loosely through brackets 84, 84, fixed on the rear wall of feeding device A. Element 80 may thus be adjusted vertically relative to the feeding device A by rotation of the bolts 82. As with the feeding device A, each element 88 may likewise be provided with spring means 85 between the brackets 88 and 84, towurge the element 80 yieldingly downwardly towards the limit of its adjustment, controlled by contact of the head of the bolts 82 against thebrackets 84.

When a bonding agent which requires application at elevated temperature is used, the feeding have found it perfectly possible to adjust the element 80 so close to the surface that the bonding agent will not flow therefrom, despite the fact that the valves are open, until the machine is moved across the surface. This, of course, results in a rather thin coating. As will be understood, the roller 10 and leading edge 88 will determine the particular position of the feeding device A asthe machine progresses across a strip of surface to be coated, the whole device A rising or falling as determined by the two highest points over which the feeding device A is passing at a given moment. The bonding agent is spread beneath the spreading element 80, and the maintenance of a reservoir of the agent confined upon the surface in the box-like feeding device A, Just ahead of the element 88, insures that the bonding material will be'deposlted over a predetermined width, and the intervening or other depressions in the particular strip of surface over which the machine passes will be filled with the bonding'agent, so that the applied bonding agent will have a surface configuration which conforms substantially to the path of movement of the straight edge 68.

Since theaxis of the roll I6 is disposed parallel to the straight edge 86, it will assume substantially the same vertical angle when it passes over a certain portion of the roof, that the straight edge assumed when it was over the same portion of the roof. A5 a result, the point a the time of spreading the bonding agent over that particular portion of the surface. There'- fore. despite irregularities in the surface, which I first i too i 3 (said murface and terminating in bottom edges, including a leading edge and side edges disposed in .a horizontal plane and a rear edge spaced above said plane and forming a spreading eleand itssupporting means, said spreading element ment, means supporting said feeding device for vertical'movement independently of said hopper being mounted on saidfeeding device for vertical movement relative thereto, and means to adjust may cause a wavy exposed surface of bonding agent, the sheet material will be applied and.

pressed onto the coated surface as the roll passes through substantially .the same waves, and every portion of the sheet material 18 will tend to contact and become firmly bonded to all portions of the surface of the applied bonding agent. v

Successive application of the bonding agent and sheet material in this manner will produce resultsobviously not possible were the sheet material, J8 subsequently applied in a direction 7 said hopper for movementover a surface, a feedtransverse tothe direction in which the adhesive i ,was applied. This latter type of application would be comparable to the present method ofmopping, which secures approximately similar and equally undesirable results. g

'I'he independently operating valves 4 4, 44 permit a coating operation of awidth equal to onehalf of the'maximumcoatin'g width, since, as shown in Fig. 2, a dividing crossplate '82 may be provided in feeding device A- to prevent interflow from one. side of the reservoir to the other.

While our invention has beendescribed ,as'having a separate arbor for the sheet material roll 20, it will be obvious that the roll of material 20 'ing device associated with said hopper and adapted to contact said surface, .said device forminga chamber adapted to confine a. head of bonding agent received from said hopper against, said surface and terminating in bottom edges, including a leading edge and side edges disposed in a horizontal plane and a rear edge spaced above said plane and forming a spreading element, means supporting said feeding device I for vertical movement independently of said hopper and itssupporting means, and means for adlusting said spreading element towards and away from said horizontal plane. 3. In a machine of the class described, a hopper for a liquid bonding agent, means to support could, if desired, be mounted soas to take the 7 position of r011 16, and act both as the feeding roll and as one of the rotary supporting means for the frame 12.

Likewise, by modification not outside of the scope of our invention, the supporting wheels I4,

element if their point of contact with the surface were outside the sides 68, 68. of the feeding .device A, or to the rear of roll l6.

While our invention as it has been described utilizes roll It as one supporting rotary element additional wheels may be provided for this pur- 1. In a machine of the class described, ahopper for aliquid bonding agent, meansto support it could be mounted to the rear of the spreading said hopper for movement over a surface, a feeding device associated with said hopper and adapted to contact said surface, said deviceforming a chamber adapted to confine a head'of said hopper for movement over a surface, a feeding device associated with said hopper and,

adapted to contact said surface, said device forming a chamber adapted to confine a head of bonding agent receivedfrom said hopper against said surface and terminating in bottom'edges, including a leading edge. and side edges disposed in a horizontal plane and a rear edge spaced above said Plane and forming a spreading element, and means supporting said feeding device for vertical movement independently of said hopper'and its supporting means. I

r 4. In a machine of the class described, a hopper fora liquid bondingagent, means to support said hopper for movement overa surface, a feeding device associated with said hopper and adapted to contact said surface, said device forming a chamber adapted to confine ahead of bonding agent received from said hopper against said surface and terminating in bottom edges, including a leading edge and side edges disposed in 'a horizontal plane and a rear edge spaced above said plane and forming a spreading element, means supporting said feeding device for vertical movement independently of said adapted to heat said spreading element.

ROY A. SMITH.

LYTLE L. WILLIAMS.

said' spreading elementtowards and away from' 

